This could very easily be called In Praise Of Pip (Sort Of) uhh…as in Pipgras not Klugmann.
Take Yankees rookie Ivan Nova. You might know: He is 15-4 this year. That IS interesting. You can just stop right there. Everybody understood that the Yankees came into this season with exactly one starter they could count on — the venerable C.C. — and they had to hope against hope that something else worked out. Maybe A.J. Burnett would regain form. Maybe Phil Hughes would pitch like he did at the ...
Recently it was brought to my attention that Roger Maris had a career BABIP of 0.254. This value seems low for him or any player with an extended major league career. In the video I have seen of him, he looks like a line drive hitter. With your help, I would like to find out what kind of batted ball profile Maris had over his career.
Maris’ BABIP was always low throughout his career. In his first MVP season of 1960, it was 0.255. In 1961, the season when he hit 61 home runs, it was 0.209. It ...
My name is Mark freaking Reynolds and I’m the worst fielder in baseball! Oops! I’m Mark freaking Reynolds! Oops!
The two errors gave Reynolds 26 for the season, a club record for a third baseman and the most by an Oriole at any position since Cal Ripken Jr. made 26 errors in 1985. The 26 errors are also tied for the sixth most in a season in Orioles history.
“I mean, it [stinks],” said Reynolds, who has started 111 games at third this season and 24 at first. “I have been putting in a lot of ...
A good baseball may be made at home. You will need some soft kid. The wrists of your mother’s old kid gloves will make fine coverings. You also need soft wool yarn for the inside, and this must be packed very tight into the covering. Now to get the proper shape of the ball, for a baseball should be as round as an orange. Take an orange; cut it evenly into quarters, numbering them at one end to aid in putting the parts together again.
To avoid the kind of collapse that led the franchise to the brink of contraction in the 1990s, the Twins will have to break from their model of stability. They need to do some firing and hiring this winter.
...Nobody is preparing these people to play in the big leagues. The minor league teams have performed at an embarrassing level for the past two seasons, and that would be excusable only if the players they sent to the Twins were polished.
The highlight of the episode though, had to be the Bill Buckner story. I had just turned one year old when Buckner had that little mishap back in the World Series, but that doesn’t mean that what happened to him isn’t engrained in my mind.
Watching Larry go through a similar situation only to meet the legend later on was great, but to have them hang out, complete a minion, and then have LD cheering Bill on as the former baseball legend redeemed himself in ...
CORMACK: I read that in 2003 you referred to Moneyball as the single most influential baseball book ever. Is that right?
NEYER: I don’t think there’s any question about it. I would take that a step further and suggest that it’s been more influential than every other baseball book combined.
I should throw a caveat in there.
It’s possible that Moneyball would exist without the Bill James Baseball Abstract in the ‘80s, so maybe my statement is a little overblown, but it’s hard to ...
Boy, this is sure shaping up to be an exciting September. Zzzzzzzzzz….
Miguel Cabrera homered and drove in four runs, and the Detroit Tigers finished a three-game sweep of Chicago in emphatic fashion, routing the White Sox 18-2 on Sunday night.
Max Scherzer (14-8) allowed five hits over seven scoreless innings, and Alex Avila had a career-high four hits for Detroit, which leads the AL Central by 6 1/2 games heading into a three-game series at second-place Cleveland. Chicago is 8 1/2 back. ...
According to West, Marlins manager Jack McKeon came out to argue Hunter Pence’s double off the right field wall should be ruled an out — the eventual call — while Phillies manager Charlie Manuel wanted West to huddle with his crew to determine whether it should have been a home run.
“Because [the Phillies] wanted me to go look to see if it was a home run, I’ve got to judge whether it went over the fence or not,” West said. “But the plate umpire [Chad Fairchild] already thought it ...
Under instant-replay rules, video review only applies to home run calls: whether they are fair or foul, whether they have left the playing field or whether they have been subject to fan interference.
In this instance, the original call was a double, not a homer, and McKeon argued that a fan had interfered with a possible catch.
Replays showed that the fan’s cap hit the ball inside the field of play. The interference prevented Marlins right fielder Bryan Petersen from having a play on the ...
The Braves are a relative lock to win the wild card spot, and that means there’s a possibility of the teams meeting in the postseason. That scenario served as Jones’ launching pad Sunday. If he didn’t quite throw a flaming spear into the ground, he came close.
“We’re what –10 games back in the loss column?” he said before the Philly lost at Florida (which actually left the team only nine losses apart). “I think it’s safe to say the likelihood ...
Sometimes, Zack Greinke goes to a park not far from his new home and stares out at Lake Michigan. This is his favorite part of this new place. Maybe he’ll get a boat. He’d like that.
...
If anything, he’s dreading all the off days in the playoffs with nothing to do and the minor annoyances of fame made more difficult by the emotional conditions for which he takes medication.
Like the other day at the grocery store. Greinke was shopping for cereal, or bread, or something, when he heard ...
The Rangers wrapped up their season series against a potential first-round playoff opponent with an 11-4 victory over the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday.
With Texas applying the pressure with a rout in Boston, the Angels used solid work by Pineiro, a home run by Bobby Abreu, run-scoring singles by Torii Hunter and Vernon Wells ...
If the Mariners promote him to the majors after his season at Class AAA Tacoma concludes on Monday, Liddi will become the first player born and raised in Italy to play in the big leagues.
Six Italian-born players have appeared in the major leagues, but all of them immigrated to North America during childhood, according to Riccardo Schiroli, communications manager for the Federazione Italiana Baseball Softball. Liddi, by contrast, was born in San ...
With the season Curtis Granderson is having and all the attention it has brought him as a major candidate for the American League Most Valuable Player Award, it can get easy bypassing the contributions Robinson Cano has made for the Yankees this year.
Cano was an MVP contender a year ago and finished third in the balloting behind winner ...
The Pirates are dealing with a couple other factors: advanced scouting reports and inexperience.
Early on, the relative obscurity of the Pirates’ lineup was an asset. But now the secret is out on many of their batters.
Hurdle and Ritchie said veteran hitters handle at-bats better.
“With experience, you can have a little more courage, a little more patience at the plate, show a little more discipline,” Hurdle said. “That comes in time.”
The upper-echelon major league teams typically have ...
I’m not leaving you Mr Christensen, not ever! AL MVP Votes (so far) Jose Bautista - 2
My ears were wide open as these guys explained their arguments. I’m one of 28 writers with an AL MVP vote this year.
...Personally, I have no problem voting for a pitcher. There are 10 spots on the MVP ballot, and if the season ended today, Verlander would be my second choice, behind Toronto’s Jose Bautista.
For me, Bautista’s numbers are too impressive to ignore. Entering Friday, he led the AL in on-base ...
With the lockout continuing, I estimate that fewer than 10-12 Primates now care about the NBA, but with our own thread, we won’t detract from what this site is really about: Andy’s collection of pirated movies, how many batteries one should buy to prepare for a hurricane that may or may not hit Manhattan, and Vera Farmiga.
...Snowball: Never Forget Where You Get Them Dollars From
Here’s why you should care now – because without a serious presence in the ownership suites Reyes could be gone, Wright could follow and it’s hard to imagine the team doing better than searching for free agent bargains like they did last winter. The payroll already is going to plummet, a fact management has admitted. A plan is in place with Sandy Alderson and his staff trying to stock the farm system. But counting on Matt ...
There is an ironclad rule in journalism that you never get too close to someone you write about.
I broke the rule once a long time ago, and I paid the price for it last week, when a famous friend – the baseball player Miguel Tejada – was cut by the San Francisco Giants and then trashed on every media platform around.
As a member of the media, I could have joined the chorus, but I didn’t. I felt too closely what Tejada felt while being on the receiving end of public scorn.
...[The] Red Sox scored eight runs off Lewis, Tateyama and Merkin Valdez in the fourth inning and went on to a 12-7 victory over the Rangers in a three-hour, 44-minute affair at Fenway Park on Saturday.
The Nationals built an early 5-0 lead behind starting pitcher Tom Milone, who made his major league debut after his contract was purchased from Triple-A Syracuse on Saturday.
With runners on second and third and one out in the second inning, Washington third base coach Bo Porter beckoned Milone over for a chat. With the Mets’ infield in expecting a bunt, Milone swung away and hit the first pitch from Dillon Gee into the Nationals bullpen for a three-run homer.
...
According to STATS LLC and ...
Saturday’s game-tying two-run homer from Ryan Raburn and walk-off shot from Miguel Cabrera two batters later traveled an estimated 824 feet. The resulting 9-8 Tigers win over the White Sox opened up a 7 1/2-game cushion between them in the American League Central standings, and pushed Detroit 6 1/2 games ahead of second-place Cleveland, who lost to the Royals.
...
Detroit faced a seven-run deficit and had a defense withering in 93-degree weather at the game’s midway point. Eight runs, a ...
George Kottaras became the first major league player to hit for the cycle this season and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Houston Astros 8-2 on Saturday night.
Kottaras hit a solo homer in the fourth inning off Bud Norris (6-9) to give Milwaukee a 2-0 lead and tripled in the sixth ahead of a two-run shot by Craig Counsell, his first of the year.
...
Colorado slugger Carlos Gonzalez was the last major leaguer to hit for the cycle, on July 31 last season against the Chicago Cubs.
Wait, slow down…Michael Kay just said “defensive metrics” today. I’m still dizzy.
Beane is an innovator. He was able to understand the value of information in a game that resists change at all costs. He focused on player development, market inefficiencies, and building a team, not a collection of free agent superstars. His model is what we see in Boston and New York today, but they are able to complement with elite talent and buy away mistakes. The Yankees had to change their internal ...
Bah, book a room at The Holmes World’s Fair Hotel and settle this!
The frustration stemming from the shortage of production from Adam Dunn, Alex Rios and Gordon Beckham recently reached a boiling point between general manager Ken Williams and hitting coach Greg Walker.
Walker took issue with Williams’ comments about Beckham’s swing, and after he and Williams exchanged heated words in the tunnel leading to the Sox clubhouse at U.S. Cellular Field, Williams told Walker to clean out his ...
Or as my Met buddy, Dennis Ribanter sez…“Meh, just another Aaron Small Sample”.
If you’re not in yet, you should be.
Enough pooh-poohing Ivan Nova. He’s not a blip, an unknown commodity. Let’s face it: He’s a force, the New York Yankees’ No. 2 starter if the playoffs opened today.
Yeah, yeah. Nova’s a rookie and doesn’t have any postseason experience.
Who cares? He can pitch. Even better—he simply wins.
...But Nova isn’t just lucky, a fraud. Nova—who upped his record to 15-4 and lowered ...
Hindsight has the baseball world looking back at the “steroid era.” Knowing that so many players gained enhancement over their natural abilities, do you feel that the accomplishments of pitchers like Maddux, Glavine, Pedro Martinez and yourself should be given more recognition for what you did on the mound in what was essentially a less-than level playing field?
Once again, you’re asking a lot of questions where there might be a biased opinion, because my opinion, based on I was just ...
